According to AAA Carolinas, an estimated 1.26 million residents will travel more than 50 miles during the Thanksgiving holiday — 13 percent of the estimated 2011 state population. About 1.13 million have or will hit the road. That’s 11.7 percent of the state population and 90 percent of all travelers. The number is up by about 11,000 people from last year.

The N.C. Highway Patrol has stepped up its efforts to handle the congestion and its effects.

“We’ve got every available man working for the Thanksgiving holiday period,” Trooper Doug Coley said. “We’ve also got a click-it-or-ticket program we’re running Wednesday through Sunday. We’re going to be targeting aggressive drivers, speeding, and — as usual — we’ll be looking for impaired drivers.”

You may have been a part of the busy roadways Wednesday, when 45 percent of all travelers were expected to be on the road. Around 36 percent of people will return Sunday. Coley said sometimes drivers let the pressure of the holiday get to them, creating dangerous situations.

“People get impatient when they’re driving,” he said. “They maybe have a time schedule that they’re trying to keep — sometimes being impatient will cause them to drive at speeds they’re not used to traveling at, or at a speed that’s not safe.”

Coley added, “People will take chances passing when maybe it’s unsafe to pass and change lanes when they haven’t checked their blind spots or used turn signals to let other people know. But speed is the prime issue when it comes to people traveling. They don’t give distance to people they’re traveling behind, and some type of abrupt stop causes a collision or a hazard.”

Coley suggests drivers take care to make sure there’s a safe distance between their car and others, and if there are two or more people going on a long trip, switching out drivers so no one gets too fatigued.

If you are traveling by car, it’s one of the best times of the year for gas prices in what the U.S. Energy Information Agency considers the Lower Atlantic region: North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Regional gas prices are down 2.8 cents from last year — an average $3.29 a gallon for regular unleaded.

“We’ve seen national gas prices come down about 25 cents a gallon in the last 30 days,” said Gregg Laskoski, senior petroleum analyst with gasbuddy.com. “Similarly in North Carolina, we’ve seen the average price also drop by about 31 cents a gallon in the last 30 days, so that’s a pretty good consistent pattern that is consistent with the winter-blend gasoline selling during the fourth quarter.”

One of the reasons more people are taking to the road is because of the lower gas prices, according to AAA Carolinas.

Page 2 of 2 - “Thanksgiving is the most traditional family holiday with the ‘turkey day’ always coming on a Thursday, creating a guaranteed four-day holiday for many,” David E. Parsons, president and CEO of AAA Carolinas, said in a statement. “The lower price at the pump will encourage more people to drive this Thanksgiving.”

Compared to last year, though, most other regions of the country aren’t doing as well. The Central Atlantic and New England regions have the worst of it, seeing a 24.1 cent and an 18 percent increase over last year, respectively. Laskoski said it comes down to refinery capacity. Nationally, the refinery capacity rate is at 86 percent, but because of the effects of Hurricane Sandy, northeastern refineries are operating at 66 percent capacity.

If 13 percent of North Carolinians are traveling, though, that means 87 percent are staying home or not going far.

“I’m staying in town, but my daughter’s traveling from Winston-Salem,” said Hugo resident Mabelene Moore, refueling at the Marathon gas station on North Queen Street this week.

Teri Rush will be staying at her home, though she said she’ll be cooking for her family, including her daughter who travels from Greenville, and her son from Snow Hill.